The invention relates to marine propulsion and, more particularly, to paddles. Alternatively, the invention relates to fluid reaction surfaces and, more particularly, to body supported fluid reaction surfaces that have carrying handles.
In still further alternative terminology, the invention relates to watercraft paddles, as for kayaks or canoes and the like, configured so that a user can handle the paddle by one hand, and easily paddle the watercraft that way: —i.e., by one hand.
It is an aspect of the invention that the one-handed paddle in accordance with the invention has a forearm brace.
It is a further aspect of the invention that this forearm brace is configured and/or oriented for sustaining pressure applied to it from the anatomical posterior aspect of the user's forearm. Hence the forearm brace does not brace the user.
To the contrary, it is the other way around. The user's forearm bears against the forearm brace to apply pressure (or force) to the paddle.
It is an additional aspect of the invention that the one-handed paddle in accordance with the invention has a control handle in combination with the forearm brace. That way, the control handle can serve in the role as a fulcrum between the forearm brace and the paddle blade. Thus paddle strokes can be more efficiently performed with less shoulder than with conventional, prior art two-handed paddles. With the inventive paddle, one means of performing a paddle stroke is an about the same manner as if you were standing on land, had a baseball in your hand, and you threw the baseball behind you, releasing the baseball at an elevation below or level with your waist. If you were sitting in a kayak and did this motion with the one-handed, forearm-braced paddle in accordance with the invention, the following would happen. The user's forearm would thrust the paddle's forearm brace in a forward and perhaps slightly downward trajectory. The user's grip on the paddle's control handle would thrust the control handle on an arc in a rearward and downward trajectory. The result is a rearward sweep of the paddle's blade.
If the input torque (in a—more or less—vertical plane, that contains the sweep of the blade) is reckoned as the thrust of the user's forearm, the output torque can be reckoned as the sweep of the paddle's blade. The fulcrum between the input torque and output torque is some perpendicular axis therebetween associated with the control handle.
Pause can be taken to briefly change the subject regarding the matter of paddles and refer for a moment to internal combustion engines. In the matter of internal combustion engines, there are two relative performance factors to contrast. There is power, and then, there is torque. Small compact gasoline engines are notable for developing high horsepower ratings: —if such engines can rev at high enough speeds (i.e., RPM's). In contrast, relatively more massive and bulky diesel engines are just as notable for not being able to produce very high horsepower ratings, but instead, being able to produce a lot of torque. The one-handed paddle in accordance with the invention is a high torque paddle.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of preferred embodiments and examples.